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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26008222">Twilight's Sorrow</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ModernKassandra/pseuds/ModernKassandra'>ModernKassandra</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 04:33:45</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,472</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26008222</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ModernKassandra/pseuds/ModernKassandra</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>How Twilight learns to cope with the burden of her long life.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Twilight's Sorrow</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hi, everyone :) So, I watched this show with my niece and the finale got me thinking. How does an Alicorn who's centered her whole life and beliefs around the magic of friendship handle the loss of her friends as they grow older and she does not?</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Granny Smith had been the first to pass on.<br/>
No one was really surprised when she had passed in her sleep. She had lived a long life.<br/>
The funeral had been hard on all of them, especially Applejack, Apple Bloom and Big Mac. They had cried for days and Applejack had barely been able to read through the eulogy Twilight had helped her prepare before she broke down again.<br/>
After the funeral, Twilight and her friends had stayed with the three Apple siblings around the grave. None of them could find the right words to say.<br/>
#############<br/>
Her parents had passed on next, a few years after Granny Smith.<br/>
Twilight could still remember being in the throne room looking over important trade papers between the different nations of Equestria. The trade agreements were a new stepping stone to help foster friendships between the different world leaders and Twilight had been consulting with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna for months to get them perfect. In the middle of their meeting, a guard had had burst into the room, flustered and panicking.<br/>
Her parents had been involved in a train accident on their way to see her for her birthday in a few days.<br/>
There had been no survivors.<br/>
She, Shing Armour, Cadence and Flurry Heart had spent that night all together, none of them wanting to be alone.<br/>
As she sat there with her family grieving the loss of her parents, Twilight felt as if her heart was going to break.<br/>
####################<br/>
As the decades wore on, Equestria thrived under the wise and just leadership of Princess Twilight and her firm belief that friendship could overcome everything. Just as she had promised her friends all those moons ago, Twilight would set aside a day every month to see her friends from Ponyville so they could catch up and discuss how best to steer the kingdom in the right direction for international peace.<br/>
These meetings were the highlight of Twilight’s month, she was always so happy to see her friends, the ones who had changed her so much and helped her become the Princess that she was.<br/>
Every meeting she saw her friends, and they all greeted her and smiled at her just as they always had. Rarity would show her some of her latest designs for the different creature clientele she was getting at her shops, Rainbow Dash and Applejack would lightly argue about something to do with their shared place, Fluttershy and Discord would fill her in on their ideas to expand and create more wildlife preserves and Pinkie would fill her ears with fun stories about ideas she, Cheese Sandwich, and Li’l Cheese were coming up with for the gag factory.<br/>
But as the meetings wore on and the weight of the years fell on her friends, Twilight could see how bone tired they were getting. She saw how Fluttershy and Rarity would stifle a yawn here and there or how Rainbow Dash wasn’t flying quite as much as before.<br/>
They were getting older.<br/>
******************
“Princess Celestia? Princess Luna?” Twilight called as she wandered the Silver Shoals retirement home.<br/>
“Twilight!” Celestia called excitedly as she and Luna quickly cantered over. “What are you doing here?”<br/>
“How are you?” Luna chimed in excitedly.<br/>
“How are things in Canterlot?” Celestia quickly asked again.<br/>
Twilight laughed as she held up a hoof. Celestia and Luna quietened, but still smiled as wide as Jack O’ Lanterns as they regarded Twilight.<br/>
“It’s wonderful to see you both again,” Twilight said, “and everything is going fine in Canterlot and with me and the girls. Everything is great.”<br/>
“Wonderful to hear,” Celestia beamed proudly at her ex-pupil.<br/>
“So, what brought you here?” Luna asked. “While we love that you came to visit, usually you come when you need help or advice on a diplomatic matter.”<br/>
“It’s not a diplomatic matter,” Twilight said as she started to wander to find a more private place. “But there is something I need to talk to you both about that’s personal and private.”<br/>
“Come to our suite,” Celestia said as she led the way, “we can talk privately there.”<br/>
The three alicorns chatted as they walked, paying little attention to the other ponies bowing in their wake.<br/>
When they reached the Princess’ shared suite, the laughter between the three faded and it seemed like a sudden weight had settled between them.<br/>
“What was it you wanted to talk to us about, Twilight?” Luna asked, finding a seat for herself as Celestia fixed her with a piercing stare that seemed to penetrate her very soul.<br/>
“How did you do it?” Twilight blurted, her head hanging as she finally said the words that had been weighing heavily on her. “How did you stand watching your friends die?”<br/>
The two sisters looked at each other with a knowing glance.<br/>
“It is hard,” Luna finally spoke softly, her eyes turning downcast and her voice trailing off as she remembered things long forgotten of centuries past. “It’s never easy to watch your friends grow old and know that they will only be in your life for such a short time.”<br/>
“They’re my best friends…”<br/>
“And you will treasure the time you have had with them,” Celestia said softly as she gently laid a wing on Twilight’s shoulder, “but you must have the strength to let them go when the time comes. Remember the good times with them and hold it close to your heart…but let them go when the time comes.”<br/>
“How?” Twilight said softly, tears pricking her eyes as she remembered the growing amount of grey hairs she had seen in Rarity’s perfectly coiffed mane or the wrinkles she had seen over Applejack and Rainbow Dash’s faces. Even Pinkie Pie wasn’t as energetic or out there as Twilight remembered her being.<br/>
“Unfortunately, there isn’t anything we can say or do to help you in this, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said as she stood on Twilight’s other side and placed her wing on Twilight’s other shoulder just as her sister had. “Grief and loss are two things that every pony, no matter their wealth or station, must go through. As a Princess, you will have more grief than any other. It is one of the burdens that comes with the blessing of being a Princess.”<br/>
At that moment, Twilight let loose all of the tears that she had desperately been holding back. At Luna and Celestia’s kind and sad words, they spilled from her so hard and fast, that no spell could have hoped to stop them.<br/>
The royal sisters said nothing- truly, there were no words they could say that could hope to help Twilight.<br/>
All they could do was to be there for her.<br/>
#####################<br/>
Rarity had been the first to pass on.<br/>
Through arranging her funeral the way she would have wanted it (“fabulous, darling, everything must be fabulous”), Twilight had tried to hold onto the good times of her friend- the sleep-overs, trying on new dresses for formal events and the countless other precious moments of time they’d shared together. She’d tried to hold on and remember the good times like the royal sisters had told her.<br/>
It got harder and harder to remember the good times as she saw her friend’s body lying there, knowing there will never be any more memories.<br/>
##################<br/>
It got harder and harder as the decades wore on and all of her friends passed on.<br/>
Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Shining Armour, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Starlight Glimmer, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, her first student at the School of Friendship, so many others that she knew and loved….<br/>
They were all gone.<br/>
#####################<br/>
Spike was the last one to pass.<br/>
As he laid in his bed in his rooms of the Canterlot Palace struggling to breathe and see, Twilight refused to leave his side. She took her meals, did paperwork and assigned her staff from Spike’s room, despite his light protests that he would be alright for an hour or two.<br/>
She refused to leave him.<br/>
After two days of struggling to draw a breath, Spike took one last breath.<br/>
“Twilight….”<br/>
For the first time in decades, Twilight lost control of her magic.<br/>
The whole room turned various shades of purple, objects transfigured into something else entirely. Everything around the room changed and distorted as she screamed out her grief.<br/>
With a flash, Discord appeared in the room, taking milliseconds to understand the situation.<br/>
His face fell as he saw Spike lying in his bed, his scales already starting to lose their healthy purple colour.<br/>
Snapping his fingers, he put the rooms back together and sat next to Twilight where she had collapsed on the floor, her body wracked with sobs.<br/>
Feeling her sobs tugging at his heartstrings, Discord laid his claw on her shoulder as tears pricked at his own eyes.<br/>
“I’ll miss them, too.”</p>
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